I’ve been blogging (almost constantly, but not quite) since November 2013, and in the entirety of that time, I’ve never been as excited about what I’m doing with Illimitable Men as I am now. So what’s changed since I first begun?
My writing isn’t as bad as it used to be, the secret to good writing (well at least what I believe to be the strength of my writing in particular), is logical and clearly explained thinking articulated with explanative yet concise prose. This means I don’t spend as much time editing as I used to, and I find it easier (and thus quicker) to produce a higher standard of quality. As the saying goes, practices makes perfect, if anything is testament to that, it’s this blog.
I had important things to say when I began blogging back in 2013, if I didn’t, I would not have begun blogging to begin with. However, the difference between now and then is that I find saying what I want to say with the clarity I want to say it with far more effortless. I don’t really get brain fog when writing anymore, it all flows clearly for me, but when I begun, it wasn’t like that, it was a real slog at times. I’ve missed workouts and been up to the early hours before perfecting posts – such is the extent of my dedication.
What used to take me 10 hours I can now create in roughly half that, and with greater polish. I know my grammar’s not perfect, but I don’t care, I know it’s good enough to go into print as the complaints I used to get have all but dried up.
In fact, editing my old work is why my book is taking so long to come out, I could release it in a couple of weeks with the original grammar if I wanted a fast buck, but, quality, integrity and credibility of the Illimitable Men name is more important to me than a financial event that’ll yield a couple thousand, possibly tens of thousands of dollars. Yes I like money, but not at the expense of the quality I hope you’ve come to associate with this publication.
It probably took me a solid year and a half to “perfect” my writing. As I’m sure you’re all aware, the internet is full of grammar nazis, and it is by embracing their ruthless scrutiny I’ve managed to enhance my grammar considerably. I am the bastard student of the internet’s grammar nazis, and for that dear internet, I thank you profusely.
I’m starting to make more than negligible amounts of money, I don’t want to reveal exactly how much (it isn’t really your business), although if you are nosy and care enough my Patreon income is easily calculated as it is public. Simply multiply the average given at the top of my profile page by the number of articles produced in any one month and you have a rough figure of what I made from Patreon that month. Of course, that’s not my only revenue stream, but it gives you a low-end estimate of what I’m making at the moment.
I didn’t start this blog to make money, but, I’m not going to bust ass for years on end producing the calibre of content that I do if there’s nothing in it. I blog for three reasons:
1. I really enjoy writing, philosophising and articulating my thoughts
2. I want to make money
3. I want to connect with interesting and influential people
I’m not going to bullshit you with the whole “hey I just love writing so much and I’m so rich anyway that money doesn’t matter to me” as so many on the internet do in a righteous affront to your intelligence, because that’d be lying and I’m candid enough to treat my readers with the respect they deserve. Wanting to make money isn’t a dirty sin I feel I need to hide.
The entrepreneur in me believes not monetising would be a crime even if I were inordinately rich. There is nothing noble about demanding no payment for your work, in fact, there’s an argument to be made it is evil as it perpetuates the notion others less well off should likewise not demand money for their work simply because a richer person in their field can afford to work for free.
If people see it is okay for a blogger at my modest yet far from beginner level to make money from their blog (although bear in mind I wrote for over a year before monetising), then smaller bloggers won’t feel guilty for wanting to make a buck from their hard work either. In this way, I hope to set a precedent – it’s perfectly fine to monetise your work so long as you don’t sacrifice its quality. Of course, if you suck, don’t expect anybody to hand you their precious dollars.
Don’t believe any blogger who says they don’t care if they make any money from their blog or not, especially if they work really hard at it. Some people get into blogging precisely to make money or meet powerful people, others don’t, but once they see they’re getting 14,000 views in a day (which is what I managed a few days back when I released ‘Instruction For A Polite Feminist’) then very few people out there wouldn’t look to monetise that sort of audience. If you don’t monetise, you’re either inordinately rich and thus can’t be bothered, or you’re an idiot.
I have purposely avoided the implementation of video or banner advertisements on Illimitable Men, although I get advertisers e-mailing me from time to time offering to help make my website significantly uglier and more annoying for an amount that probably barely scratches $1,000 a month. No thanks, making money without annoying my readers is precisely why I use Patreon.
Money is not evil, and neither is earning from one’s efforts, you wouldn’t work for free so I don’t know why anybody would expect me to. To be honest, I think people who believe the world owes them something and that everything they want should be free are lazy losers who are simply unwilling to work harder to get what they want. Scarcity mindset is being frugal, abundance is growing your earning and social power, which is how I use this blog to provide me value whilst simultaneously providing value to my readers. I work hard, so I expect rewards, it’s that simple, however I digress.
I’m making contacts, I’m connecting with some very interesting/valuable people I’d probably never have met had it not been for this blog, so for that I’m extremely grateful. I don’t want to go into too much detail about that as I respect the privacy of the gentlemen who message me, but alas, this metric bears inclusion in my enthusiasm for my continued work. I intend to meet with a handful of my readers later in the year.
If you’re thinking of starting a blog, I recommend you do so for the reasons I have, and if networking in particular is important to you, put quality over quantity should you wish to attract the attention of people worth knowing. Anyhow, I’ve expended far more words than expected merely outlining why I’m so enthused by my work here, so onto the meat of the post – my plans for the blog this year!
The Illimitable Men Book – When’s It Coming?
In the passage above I briefly mentioned my as yet unreleased upcoming book, I know you’ve been waiting awhile, but you’ll thank me when on launch day you receive a text that is well formatted, readable and low on if not absent of mistakes. My sense of perfectionism will ensure you get a quality product, and I hope because of that, my text will contain the professionalism necessary to be enthusiastically purchased and gifted.
My timeline at present is the March/April window, I really don’t want to leave it any later than that. My main focus right now is on setting up my private dark triad forum and continuing to produce new content. If you wish to buy the book on release (99% sure I’ll retail for $14.99 – £9.99), register your interest here and you’ll be e-mailed a week before the book comes out notifying you of its impending release.
When my book comes out, my top 5 patrons (assuming they are fine with giving me their mailing addresses) will be sent a signed copy of my book and a hand written thank you note as a token of my gratitude for their support. I have no plans to sign books for anybody else in the near future, that’s a little something I want to reserve for my biggest supporters. I will Patreon message my top 5 supporters nearer to the release of the book, letting them know they’re eligible for a free signed copy as a token of my gratitude.
I am going to commission somebody to create a book cover for me (as I lack the skills necessary to create my own), however I have a one-off proposition for anybody up to the task. if you create a book cover I want to use, I will give you lifetime access to the dark triad board. Why do you care about that, what does lifetime access to the dark triad board actually mean and why would you want that? More on that in the next section. If nobody is up to the task, that’s fine, I have an Eastern European gentleman who’ll do it for $15, but the offer’s there should any of you be up to the task.
The Dark Triad Forum
I’m going to dedicate a lot of space to this section because the details I’ve released thus far have been scant, and I want to answer some of the questions publicly that keep popping up in my inbox. I mentioned in the Machiavellian Maxims post that I’d detail more about the nature of the dark triad forum later on, well here it is.
What will the dark triad forum discuss, and what are the benefits of being a member?
– Zero morality environment, we are strategy rather than morality based. If it’s effective to the user, it’s valid. I will kick people out who undermine strategy with moral arguments.
– The community and I will help your strategise your predicament, be that work politics, a rival, a business partner or whatever. You will have a small group of highly intelligent men to convene with.
– We will discuss and encourage texts conducive to enhancing one’s understanding of narcissism, psychopathy and strategy, among others.
– I/we will share and discuss scientific studies relevant to psychopathy and the dark triad.
– Topics will include: political strategy/statecraft (eg: The Prince), propaganda, advertising & PR, psychopathy, narcissism, rhetoric/sophistry and military strategy among others.
– I will write exclusive articles for the community from time to time, most will be blueprints or strategies for maneuvering within organisations, similar to RibbonFarm’s stuff but more specific, basically, blueprints for more aggressive uses of Machiavellianism. I will at some point probably pen pieces on how to use The 48 Laws of Power in the workplace too.
– Tightly regulated/exclusive, good degree of privacy. As the community is private and the barrier to entry is moderately high, troublesome users are easily banned, and search engine bots won’t be able to feed our conversations into search engines.
This is all I’m willing to reveal about the nature of the community to anybody who isn’t a part of it.
You said that $5 patrons get access to the board, but can I get access after a single donation?
Short answer, no. The community is a token of thanks to my patrons, not donators. If you become a patron for a month and then retract, you lose access when you retract your support. 2 major reasons for working things like this:
1 – I want to reward the people who fund my literature with something that brings them additional value, if I give it to donators then that shits on the guys who have already supported my writing for 6+ months. I know many of my patrons don’t support my writing solely for access to the dark triad forum, but I still want them to have something that is just for them.
2 – It ensures the community stays high value because only people serious enough about the subject matter are going to bother investing money to be part of it. Most people won’t be willing to pay to be part of a community, but a minority will, and I’m banking on that to keep forum growth steady, yet humble and thus exclusive. If I got too much interest I’d have to rethink how I funnelled in new members, maybe up the price or give current members a limited number of invites or something.
Minimum access at present is $5 per article for a minimum of 3 articles a month, that’s $15 per month or £10 in my money. It’s a bit costlier than Netflix, just far more useful. The $5 package on my Patreon is limited to 50 slots, when those 50 slots fill up it will double to the $10 package, meaning $30 or £20 a month. If a slot frees up (eg: someone stops pledging support) someone quick enough and lucky enough would be able to get in on the $5 50 slots package.
I’m not really willing to bust ass or put in the effort for $5 some dude sent me a year ago, that’s not really incentive. I know to some of you this will sound expensive, and for those of you who think that – you’re not my target audience.
I will release a Machiavellian/dark triad book eventually (not any time soon), so if you don’t have that kind of disposable income then don’t worry, save your money and get the book later on. Don’t feel like you’re left out, because I’m still going to be writing plenty here (including on the dark triad) and that doesn’t cost you a dime. If you’re tight for cash, please keep it, I don’t want your money.
I intend to open the dark triad forum later in the month (at the latest early next month) so you have until the end of this month to become a patron if you wish to have access to the community from the day it opens. You can become a patron by clicking here, or using the orange button in the top right corner of each page.
Podcasting:
Does IllimitableMan sound like a whiny teenage neckbeard whose balls haven’t dropped? I’m sure at some point in your reading this has been something you’ve pondered, for you know me only in the voice you read with, not the one I actually speak with.
I’ve been requested numerous times to start a podcast, or at least go on other peoples as people want to get a read on what my personality’s like and hear what I sound like. I’m down for this, however my connection where I live now isn’t great. Once I’ve moved house and acquired a connection that doesn’t lead to random words being omitted from the Skype call (this is what happened when we experimented with a pilot podcast a few months back), you will get to hear me.
What will the podcast be about? In all honesty, we’re probably just going to chat a whole bunch of shit. Relationship advice, ridiculing the lunacy of feminists, talking about self-improvement and work ethic, that kind of thing. When will this come out? Probably later in the year. My immediate priority is the dark triad forum, then getting the book out, so this will come after that. We’re looking June-July time at the earliest, probably later, not really a priority, but want you to know it’s in the eventual pipeline.
A Shout-out To Ed Latimore
Seeing as this is a meta post and it’s not often I make posts directly addressing my readers like this, I want to conclude this post with a shout out to up and coming self-improvement blogger, heavyweight boxer and physicist Ed Latimore of http://edlatimore.com/.
Ed is a great guy, and were it not for this blog, he is one of the great men I would not have had the pleasure of connecting with. If you like candid no-nonsense introspection and life advice from a guy on top of his shit, check Ed out, he doesn’t just talk the talk but he walks the walk too. Ed is definitely one to watch, and I’m nothing but happy to send him some additional readers.
To conclude:
As you can see, 2016’s a busy year, I’m juggling all the aforementioned alongside the penning of new articles. Thank you all for your readership, and here’s to a great 2016.
– Illimitable Man
